What’s in common between Mike Halloran, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Blake Bachelor, an undergraduate student living in the US? Both were clueless about cricket and introduced to it by Saurav Pathak, a cricket fanatic and university professor in Virginia, USA.
To him, it was therefore thrilling to receive Blake’s message during T20I CWC, which read “Hey Prof, saw the historic upset by the US over Pakistan, supposed to be huge, correct?” Mike too had promptly remarked, “Sounds like the US-India game is shaping up to be quite a match”.
Has USA Cricket (USAC) done enough to attract more Blakes and Mikes? Remember, cricket is still considered a ‘niche international sport’, not mainstream. So, are we looking at the US as having a national cricket team or a cricket-playing nation? The two scenarios are vastly different, at least currently.
Between the expulsion of USACA by ICC in September 2017, due to governance issues, and formalisation of USAC in 2019, calls for forming a cricket league went out in 2018. Four additional years of efforts culminated with the launch of the Major League Cricket (MLC) in 2023, giving impetus to USAC’s vision. The MLC includes six franchise teams – Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR), Mumbai Indians New York, San Fransisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings (TSK) and Washington Freedom.
The MLC 2024 recently concluded. Grand Prairie ‘Dallas’ stadium, home of TSK and one of the three hosts of T20 World Cup, was the sole venue. Plans include building stadiums in other five locales, augmenting capacity from 15,000 (at Dallas) to over 50,000 combined. Great Park Stadium, LA, expected home of LAKR, would be one of two cricket-venues for the 2028 LA Summer Olympics, alongside Leo Magnus Cricket Complex.
Returning to Olympics after a hiatus of 128 years (previously at the 1900 Paris Olympics) is monumental for US cricket. And ultimately, as with any endeavour, nothing succeeds like success. USA making it to Super 8 in T20 World Cup, consequently qualifying for the next edition, has done no harm to achieving USAC’s goals whatsoever.
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So, what are its goals? “Engage existing fans and grow new ones”, and spur “sustainable development of cricketing infrastructure across the United States”. While infrastructure has been developed, there is an underlying assumption about existing fans and a lack of clarity on who newer fans are or would be. Efforts revolve around retaining the interests of South Asian Americans (Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, etc.) – immigrants from cricket-playing nations. Sadly, cricket failed to connect with America.
This relative obscurity of cricket is rooted in two historical reasons. First, in 1909 when the ICC was originally established as the Imperial Cricket Conference, it accommodated only Commonwealth nations thus excluding USA from participating at the highest level. The pushback may have left a bad taste and a permanent scar that perhaps to this day fuels a cultural resistance to accepting cricket.
Another reason, possibly because of the first, was that the 19th century US saw the rise of summer-time bat-to-ball sport, now called baseball, which displaced cricket as a popular pastime, to the extent that cricket today is an ‘Asian knock-off of Baseball’. By 1965, when US was officially admitted to the renamed ICC as an associate member, ‘The Big Five’ – American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey and soccer – had firmly established themselves as the quintessential lifeline of sports and entertainment for the American people, with swimming, gymnastics, being popular too, leaving cricket searching for South Asian Americans (SAAs).
Fast forward five decades, SAAs remain USAC’s target segment. Commercialisation appears to be prioritised over popularisation. While the two are symbiotic and business-wise rising revenue denotes growth, fanwise it’s troubling to observe that there appears no beachhead strategy to bring cricket to ‘The Americans’.
Understandably, cricket is making a comeback of sorts after a century, hence it’s one for the taking that it will warrant an arduous and lengthy process of positioning it next to the incumbent ‘Big Five’ and weaving it into the fabric of American culture. Hence, should USAC be content with its fanbase of South Asian Americans? What could USAC do to reach the larger American society? How can cricket coexist with the Big Five?
Author Designation and Affiliation:
Saurav Pathak, Clinical Associate Professor of innovation, entrepreneurship and strategy
Raymond A. Mason School of Business
College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.
Email: sauravicbs@gmail.com
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-pathak-5b60bb2a4/
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